Pursuing a Pretty House and Happy Home through DIY, Domesticity, and Faith

Why We Are Drywalling Over Our Windows

The View From My Bed

One unique thing about our house is that I can actually see who is at the front door while lying in bed. On the down side, someone at the front door can also see me lying in bed…and that’s why we are drywalling over our windows.

Our house had an outdoor patio that was enclosed to be kind of like a sunroom except it is painted dark brown and actually does not get much light. I say it is “like a sunroom” because they left the original exterior windows in place as you might see done on a cute cottage sunroom. Our windows are ugly though and there are lots of them: two windows in the kitchen, two in the living room, and a sliding glass door and window in the master bedroom.

The obvious solution is that these windows need to be removed and instead of having a “kinda but not really a sunroom,” we will just have another, normal living area. I’ve helped remove and install a door before and I figured windows would be the same process: remove the trim, take out a few screws, and then just use a pry bar to loosen the thing up and yank it out.

Not so with windows and sliding doors though! Most original windows and sliding door frames have flanges on the outside of the frame that are nailed into the house before the exterior siding or brick is put up. Take note of BEFORE. That means the flange is sandwiched between the exterior siding/brick and the rest of the house and you CANNOT easily access it to remove the nails.

Our Solution: Drywalling Over Our Windows

While it is still possible to remove the window and door frames, it is much much harder than I had originally thought. So much harder that we had to ask ourselves;

“Is it was possible to just hide the windows instead of actually removing them?”

And luckily, we think yes, drywalling over our windows to effectively hide them is the way to go. My first thought was bookshelves!!! But then I realized THAT IS ALOT OF BOOKSHELVES.

After nixing bookshelves as the ideal solution, I considered chalk board walls, bulletin boards, and dry erase boards but we just have too much wall space to cover with solutions like those. There are actually twelve different openings to cover up and hide when you consider we have both sides of the wall to address.

On one side (which includes the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom), we are drywalling over the windows, texturing, and painting so that you will never know they were there! And just so you know, even if we properly removed the windows, it would be nearly impossible and super expensive for us to match the brick and cedar siding on the patio side, so we would still have the same issue of how to cover and hide the window openings.

Our Progress So Far

The Patio Side

As of yet, we are still not sure how we are going to hide or cover the windows on the converted patio side.

We need help y’all!

This room’s ultimate function will be a playroom or a game room or something along those lines and there are effectively six window openings that we will have to address. I need ideas and inspiration! I definitely want to build some bookshelves but I can’t have three separate walls covered in bookshelves. So what else? Per usual, I am using Pinterest to help me come up with ideas. Leave me links in the comments if you have any good Pinterest suggestions!

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About

I'm so glad you are here! This blog is meant to capture our family's journey as we try and turn our 1979 fixer upper into our "forever" home. Some posts capture our final days at our old home before we knew God would be providing a new home for us. You can expect a lot of DIY projects and renovation updates but I also like to share on topics like budgeting, saving money, and my faith. Thanks for stopping by!